Jon Stewart and the US media

quote:Originally posted by thorin_bane:
[QB]

Book consumption is actually up.

Report here I think people are spending more time reading on the web which of course leads to the need to read something more substancial than a lot of articles or forum posts. Plus Opra nevermind what I think of the books she promotes, at least she is getting her followers reading.

Many of Stewarts and Colberts guests are promoting books as well, it's one of the main reasons they come on.
I've actually got a few after I've seen them on the show because it's the first I heard of them.

quote:
Sorry about the drift
Daily Show and Colbert report are suppose to be on live at 10:00 est tonight for election coverage. Don't know if that applies to comedy network here though.

It's on CTV. I just saw a commercial for it. Pretty funny actually. Stewart and Colbert standing there...Colbert holding a paper and says generally, "Well I'm ready to call it, I have the result as pre-released by the administration, which they always give out to real news reporters. Stewart 'um well I didn't get them yet' and Colbert giving him a smug shruggy look, "Well what can I say John..."

For the past 10 days the US has been gripped. Even President Obama tuned in as the country's foremost TV comic, Jon Stewart, unleashed an extraordinary broadside against TV's top financial commentators for their part in the unfolding economic crisis.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/15/usa-tv-jon-stewart-economy

His assault on Wall Street began in earnest with a classic Daily Show technique: a series of juxtaposed clips revealing incompetence and hypocrisy. First there was Rick Santelli, a CNBC reporter who tried to strike a populist chord by launching a sudden rant on a trading floor. Stewart, unimpressed, forensically dissected the channel's past mistakes, in which it made exuberantly bullish statements about the market and various investment banks shortly before they collapsed. Stewart added: "If I only followed CNBC's advice. I'd have a million dollars today – provided I'd started with $100m."

Such is his influence, in the next days ratings for Mad Money went down 10 per cent in the 25-to-54 demographic. But Cramer, a former hedge fund manager, is not one to take barbs lying down. He declared war with the sarcastic riposte: "Oh, oh, a comedian is attacking me! Wow! He runs a variety show!"

Stewart aired still more clips of Cra­mer advising his viewers to pile into Bear Stearns shares in the weeks before the bank collapsed, rendering them worthless. As the media stoked up the row, the date was set for a "facedown" last Thursday. Stewart showed the attack-dog interviewing instincts of a Humphrys or Paxman. He charged that people at CNBC knew what was going on behind the scenes on Wall Street but failed to tell the public. He accused CNBC hosts and pundits of abandoning their journalistic duties and acting like cheerleaders for the market.

Cramer proffered feeble mea culpas and acknowledged that they could do better. But the merciless Stewart produced damning footage of a 2006 interview with TheStreet.com, in which Cra­mer described, in a positive way, certain barely legal things a hedge fund manager might do to work the market to his advantage. Stewart pressed: "I understand you want to make finance entertaining. But it's not a game. And when I watch that, I can't tell you how angry that makes me."

He launched an eloquent assault that struck at the very foundations of American financial press and television. "You knew what the banks were doing, yet were touting it for months and months – the entire network was," he said. "For now to pretend that this was some sort of crazy, once-in-a-lifetime tsunami that nobody could have seen coming is disingenuous at best, and criminal at worst."

The interview became an online sensation that reached the White House. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said he has spoken to President Obama about watching the Stewart-Cramer showdown. "Despite, even as Mr Stewart said, that it may have been uncomfortable to conduct and uncomfortable to watch - I thought somebody asked a lot of tough questions," the spokesman said.

Insiders at CNBC have acknowledged the episode was a public relations disaster. A day after his public thrashing, Cramer declared that, "although I was clearly outside of my safety zone, I have the utmost respect for this
person and the work that they do, no matter how uncomfortable it was".

Now the media has finally been forced into introspection. Andrew Leckey, a former CNBC host and now president of the Donald W Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University, said: "In a tremendous boom period, they covered the boom and people wanted to believe in the boom. They didn't uncover the lies that were told to them. Nobody did. But they should be held to a higher responsibility.

Yeah, The Comedy Network has a bigger news budget than Fox and MSNBC put together. 

It's the law of supply and demand:  humourless automatons want mainstream infotainment while the cheekier demographic wants a belly laugh or two to complement its disaster reports.  

I thought it was good of Stewart to have Mustapha Barghouti on last night.  Unfortunately Stewart's approach to Barghouti was right out of the AIPAC manual.  He could have allowed that Jewish woman a word or two as well.

The Angry Arab wasn't impressed with anything about the interview:

Since Bill Maher is a close comedic cousin to Jon Stewart, I'll mention this here rather than start a new thread.

I used to watch Politically Incorrect back around 2001, not because I liked much of what Maher was saying (he said he was a "real" Republican back then) , but to get some kind of angle on what yanquis thought about the world.  Usually I'd end up fairly angry, but that was part of the entertainment for me.

I recently started watching Maher again on his HBO show (whatever it's called) and thought he had come around to being almost as leftist as a yanqui could be.

He shot that idea down last week.  At one point he made a comment on how the price of gasoline is artificially low, because the cost of "defending the Middle East" isn't taken into account.  That comment was no accident, as he repeated it a few times.

Then he went on a rant about those threats against the South Park cartoonists, telling Muslims that his culture is better than their culture.

Sarah Palin probably wouldn't have anything to argue about with him over what he said last week.

I still don't think Bill Maher deserves his own thread...

What has to be fully appreciated, is the US liberals are as supportive of US foreign policy as the most rabid Republicans. Why? Because as Obama states, the US lifestyle is non-negotiable. A nation representing a fraction of the global population but consuming the lion's share of the globe's resources can only maintain its "lifestyle" through the liberal application of raw, industrial strenghth, organized violence. Therefore, there is a political consensus in the US that any government that resists US demands for unconditional surrender of sovereignty and resources is an enemy that must be demonized, debased, and ridiculed and, ultimately, the entire nation must be subjected to a brutal violence that serves the same purpose as heads placed on stakes in public squares in an earlier era.

Remember, Iraq was not just about stealing oil but about "shock and awe"; to stand as an abject lesson to Iran, Venezuela, and any other nation resisting hegemony. Throughout US history, since the Spanish-American war, US foreign policy has been consistently and violently applied by every administration regardless of party. The US is the War State.

Whichever rightwing loon (Mike Stafford or Charles Adler) who had airtime on AM640 following Leafs Lunch the other day said that Bill Maher is a racist for saying that Barack Obama isn't really black.  The guy was quite giddy about the whole thing, y'know, because Bill Maher is a liberal and a leftist and all. 

I don't doubt that Maher is a racist - he's been making anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments for years - but it's funny that the right-wingers have seized upon this apostate Republican to score points against someone whom they see as representing "The Left."

The comic Corus isn't singing solo either.  This "story" is all over the interwebs.

by Medea Benjamin

I like the humour, but yeah kinda bullshit talking about leftwing extremeists in the US when I don't think any of them have a TV show let alone a TV station(or several) Their political ideas are more like-"lets war with only 57 nations." "Look at this pinko commie lets war with 59 or 60." as far as mainstream TV goes. When he put down Chavez and never put it into context I knew he had to follow some kind of pecking order regarless of what his personal views are. At least he shows some of the suffering for the palestinians which is a lot more than most. But yeah still bullshittig their way holding up the capitalist banner.

Like I said, I give them some credit. I think the rally for sanity is to try to get some softer republicans voters to not hate democrats as much(for what its worth) much as how we should concentrate on either getting cons to not vote or to convince them harper is wrong for the job , elect someone else. The problem is the right have learned how to frame it as an US vs THEM scenario. Everytime we attack them and prove they're wrong it only adds to them digging in their heels. There is no way the cons shoudl be sitting above 15% right now. But the framing it as my team no matter what the ref and video replay says is leading us down this path.

Gotta convince these people we aren't the enemy, and you don't do that by telling them how stupid they are for voting that way. Its like rooting for the leafs. Even if they haven't won in 40 odd years their supporters(all sports teams really) will see every call different than the ref. Every lose is someone elses fault, every win is just one step away form the Cup finals. Even if they lose all the time they will be defended because its "my team, I chose them".

And that is where we are at these days. Problem is one team is cheating a lot more than the other 4. Especially when the refs are the people who use to play for their team.

John Stewart on Crossfire

This is what Stewart does well, Crossfire was cancelled shortly after.

That really bothered me too thorin, when Stewart pretty much equated Marxists with the luny right. Thanks for the shot at socialism dude! And there is no way this will win over any moderates. You can talk to these crazy right wingers until you are blue in the face - it isn't going to change a thing. A speech by a comedian most of them despise is certainly NOT going to get them to stop their politicking on behalf of Big Business. Stewart should have used his speech to get as many people to vote as possible and stop trying to play to the middle.

I disagree that the left must move to the middle to get the right to listen. It has NEVER worked. Ever. The left is losing because they already make far too many concessions for the right and the right is not willing to make any for the left and they never will. What needs to happen is we need people like Stewart to come out swinging. Show exactly WHY these people are crazy and what the world they advocate for really means to the every day person. Enough of this bullshit of trying to appease these people. They don't care. They aren't going to start caring until their worlds as they frame it are seen as wreaking havoc in their lives. Until them they are effectively dead to the left. Face it, learn how to mobilize the left.

Another thing that has to be faced - there is effectively NO mainstream outlet for the anger of the left. They have nothing to get their voices out with the exception of a comedy show. I don't think we are going to see a rise in left wing media in my lifetime. This is a real issue and I don't have the answers for it. But I can say without a doubt there is no use in appealing to right. None. I say no more concessions, no more selling out, no more giving in. We have lost far far too much as it is. No more caving to the crazies. let the chips fall where they may and then attack once these idiots live in a world they will (and you know they will) eventually utterly despise.

The Phantom Left

by Chris Hedges

Don't be duped into thinking Stewart is on our side; he's a liberal, after all.